Friday, May 7, 2010

The Gaslamp Killer is a maniac among maniacs of several different categories, but attains his highest highs as a producer, turntablist and hairstyle daredevil. His birthday was Wednesday and he speaks now while resting up from another night at Low End Theory. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

Is it fair to say you made over 1,200 trips to L.A. for parties before you finally moved here? Shit! Now the first word of this interview is ‘shit.’ I think that might be accurate. It’s well over a thousand. The most repetitive things I’ve done in my life are try to make a beat, try to learn new scratches, practicing music, playing my drum set and complaining about the weather or something retarded. Ever think about complaining over a beat you sampled from your own drum set? It’s almost there—I should try and bring it all together! One giant OCD freakfest! Are you the George Carlin of the slam mix? That would be such an honor! To be compared to such a genius! Depending on how drunk I am, a lot of things come out on the mic at night—like the word ‘motherfucker’ every other word! Wasn’t ‘motherfucker’ once an official part of your name? I was angry one day and angry at the world and society! But there is a story behind the name. Did you wake up with blood on your hands? I played in downtown San Diego, which is Naval Surf Academy meets the Laguna Beach MTV show—that’s what I grew up with. I didn’t have a nurturing community to DJ from. I’d be playing—from the age of 17—every weekend, escorted in and out of fancy Gaslamp District clubs to play for meatheads. Give me one Coca-Cola and escort me out—couldn’t sell CDs, couldn’t give away stickers. Usually I cleared the dance floor and made the meatheads mad—the girls wouldn’t dance. But the promoters liked it. So they kept bringing me back to educate these meatheads. I was always playing instrumental psych dirty beats. A friend of mine was like, ‘You’re the only one in the Gaslamp doing what you’re doing—the only one killing the Gaslamp!’ And we didn’t have a name for the mixtape, so we called it Gaslamp Killers. Do you ever get nostalgic? Miss the meatheads? Definitely. People take longer to evolve—no disrespect. But I see people from my high school now and they’re like, ‘Willie, we’re so proud! I never knew this music!’ I’m glad people are getting into it. Maybe there’s a little more education. But I still clear the dancefloor! It still fucking happens! I start with Little Weezy and I still kill! B+ dubbed me the Dancefloor Killer—lovingly. I clear it and fill it with nerds—people who just wanna break their necks and freak out. People who wanna be sexy—there’s enough of them in the world. They can all suffer. Are you hated by the sexy? Hated by people trying to get sexy. There aren’t any sexy moments—I can’t see people grinding to my music, and if they were, I’d tell them to stop! Nah, I dance. A lot of DJs say, ‘My job is for the people—I’m here to cater’—you gotta be an artist, too. You gotta have passion—be an artist, an educator, have more motivation than ‘I wanna make people dance around.’ How did you decide that was important? I had really good friends letting me know. I was jocking their shit, and my good friend Michael Raymond Russell of MRR-ADM—dirtydrums.com, who just did a 10” on Now Again—told me, ‘Don’t ever cater! If there’s any advice you ever take for me in your entire life, don’t cater! It’s not gonna get you where you’re gonna go! Your job is to educate—to play the dirtiest rawest stuff! Push it to the next level!’ He inspired me. And it took them so long to get their music out the way they wanted. People like Mike Russell, Adam Manella, my friend DJ 10shun—they were playing the rawest shit and scratching the illest and were on the next shit, in my opinion. They were all killing it so hard. You gotta be as good or better than your friends. And now it’s people like Samiyam, Flying Lotus, Ras G, Dimlite, Nosaj Thing—they’re all pushing! Mr. Chop, Heliocentrics, Cherrystones—they’re making me wanna lose my mind and explode! Making me wanna be a DJ who just spins their music! You seem like you have a lot of high highs and low lows. I have no balance in my life right now. I’m searching for balance. Is that why you have half an afro and half braids? Exactly! Highs and lows—always intense! Not only am I a neurotic obsessive-compulsive Jew—I’m a Scorpio! Every Scorpio I know is a freak like me. We’re very intense people. We don’t really have a choice. What your favorite souvenir from every continent you’ve been to recently? I don’t buy ‘em—but I have mental and emotional and soul souvenirs! Tons of those! In the U.K., I was getting to hang with Cherrystones. The guy is a virtual—well, library! I go over there and he has books and movies I never heard of—not to mention the illest records! I could sit at his crib all day and educate myself. And spending time with new friends in Australia—my hosts were so cool! As soon as I got off the plane, they had a joint in my hand. Did all those Unreleased Beat Invitationals make you pay extra attention to your own work? Hell yeah! It’s because of Low End Theory—not only me, but everyone has actually stepped it up, you know? Low End Theory made Lotus freak out—every one of us. Nobody’s beats are so fucking hard lately. People are gonna be blown away! Low End Theory has affected all of our styles—‘Yeah, I can use samples, and sample psych and Ethiopian, but you still gotta have the 808 in there…’ You’re a Low End Theory resident—what do you think the club has brought to Los Angeles? It’s given nerds like me a platform to be really—accepted? Accepted and appreciated and—Low End Theory provided a place for nerds and beatheads to be really nurtured. It’s a community outreach program! I shit you not! 18-year-old kids are coming in and all they hear is the same stuff on the radio and they can’t go to clubs so they just go to raves or house parties—everybody remembers being a kid, and there was never a time when you could go to a weekly to hear such ferociously progressive music at that age. Every week! We bring young people in and they’re getting made fun of in school—all the same stuff we were going through—and they get a place to be themselves! We get hundreds of bright-eyed bushy-tailed kids in our face—no beer in their hand and just an ‘X’! It’s a beautiful thing. I’m very very proud of Kev for his idea and the fact that it’s happening—super stoked. You’ve mentioned education a lot—what are you trying to learn? Or teach? I feel I’ve been given the ability to make people feel free—act like a freak, bang their heads, whatever it is I’m doing. It feeds me to hear their applause and roars! All I’m doing is looking for the next fucking crowd to turn out. It serves me and it serves them. It lets kids know they can be free—be whoever they wanna be—that nobody can tell them what they can or can’t do. Who do you look to that’s doing that now? Thom Yorke—Radiohead. They made it through whatever the fuck was going on. People dropped like flies around them! I can’t say Hendrix, Cobain or Marley—three of my favorite most inspiring dudes, and people might say they’re played out but they’re famous for a reason! John Lennon was famous for a reason—a god among men! Hendrix and Cobain may not have been as political, but their music said enough and traveled enough—the hardest dudes ever! Then you have Radiohead, who were maybe not epic in the beginning but who blossomed into one of the best bands in history in my opinion—the top ten of all time, possibly top five—and the fact that they’re still together! No ODs, no one died, they’re not too eccentric to not stay in the studio or drop off tour—so Thom forgot a song, big fucking deal! So would you—you’re not a machine! But the fact that they keep going and keep involving—the fact that Thom Yorke sat down with Lotus and talked shit and had a cup of tea! He knows about L.A.! He knows about me! I will shit right here if that motherfucker knows about me! That’s how hard I think Thom Yorke is! I’d love to just hide for a year and just make dope music, but it’s not meant to be right now. There’s so many elements to a musician’s life. It’s damn near impossible—but it’s a new age and it’s a new day and anything is fucking possible! I got my drums downstairs with a bass guitar and a Rhodes—I’m trying to evolve as a human being and a musician. And as much as I wanna focus on my relationships with my friends and getting out to the world and sharing and performing, I always want actually to have a record that will stand next to my heroes. I’m 25—I think I can make this happen! God willing—if I stay alive! I didn’t drop out of school for nothing! What did you go to school for? For my parents! So they wouldn’t think I was a loser! And when I dropped out, they were like, ‘You’re insane!’ But now I’m at P.F. Chang’s for their 44th wedding anniversary and the server says, ‘Hey—Gaslamp Killer! Rad!’ And my mom grabs my dad—‘Willie made it! HE MADE IT!’ They were so motherfucking happy!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

You have heard him at the Dubstep Massacres, followed him closely on Soundcloud and on Facebook, but something was still missing from the equation... And today it has happened!!!!
That's right! Today you can download your very own 12 track dubstep mix album created for your listening pleasure by your very own DJ Belly! And the best thing is that it's absolutely positively 100% for sure totally FREE!

Monday, May 3, 2010

To everyone that attended (or tried to attend) the Dubstep Massacre on Saturday, May 1,

As always, thank you to our fans for turning out in droves once again for our Dubstep Massacre party this past Saturday. We were always confident that our loyal scene would pack The Highdive and you certainly did not let us down.

However, in a way, we the organizers feel like we let some of you down. The show was advertised as costing $5 if you bought a presale ticket. If you just showed up and wanted to pay at the door, it was supposed to cost $7. We advertised those prices consistently.

The night of the show, someone from The Highdive took it upon themselves to raise the price to $10 per person without consulting any of the organizers of the show. Let me repeat that to be perfectly clear, charging $10 at the door was never discussed with any of the Dubstep Massacre organizers, and it certainly was not authorized by us.

We took on the costs of promotions, extra sound rental, hotel for our headliners, transportation costs and the artist guarantees. We had some help from Red Bull, but at the end of the day, the risk of not covering costs of the show falls solely on the 217mafia. With our experience booking shows, we knew that $5 and $7 tickets were all we needed to put on this show. We put on these shows for the purpose of putting on good shows, not to get paid. There was no need for anyone to charge $10 for this show, and there was no way we would take advantage of over a year's worth of loyalty by jacking up ticket prices with no announcement and for no good reason.

As we sit here on Monday morning trying to figure out how to make this right, we've talked about how we would love to take the extra money you spent on this show and give back -- maybe throw you a kick ass BBQ or a cool free show to say that we're sorry. The problem is, we the promoters of the show, have, as of yet, not been paid an amount that reflects the unauthorized increase in ticket prices. We're working on that issue too.

If you were one of the people that were charged $10 at the door, please contact us. Hit up djbellymusic@gmail.com and we'll do what we can to make things right with you.

In addition to that, all we can say is that we're sorry this happened. We have never had this type of problem since we started throwing the Massacre in February 2009. We are already taking steps to make sure this sort of thing never happens again, even if we do end up back at The Highdive for another show.

We know that none of these shows would be possible without our fans. We know the value of your loyalty, and we would never exploit it. We are very sorry if any of you felt otherwise on Saturday.

Monday, March 29, 2010

We're very excited about the upcoming Dubstep v. Electro show which isnow going to be held at Highdive. All indications are that CowboyMonkey would not be nearly big enough to hold both the dubstep and theelectro scenes in this town. That makes us happy.

We're also very excited that on the same night, one of the best andlongest running music events in Champaign, IL Breaks, will behappening just a few miles away at the Ilini Union.

A lot of the people that throw dubstep events in this town helped setup and run previous IL Breaks. Those same people, and a LOT of thedubstep fans have been supporting IL Breaks for years. We stillsupport it.

So instead of making a competition between the two events that night,we're going to be handing out FREE TICKETS at IL Breaks to the DUBSTEPv. ELECTRO show at the Highdive. Just find a member of our street teamat IL Breaks and they'll hook you up. We want people actually going toIL Breaks and then coming to dance themselves at Highdive. There willbe a limit of one ticket free ticket per person because we want you toactually witness the IL Breaks experience because it is such a greatevent.

We hope that people will support both events as they're perfectexamples of what independent promoters and local music lovers canaccomplish working together in Champaign.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about this one guys, buy your tickets in advance, it's going to be a PACKED show! Looking forward to blessing SmartBars Funktion 1 system again too, I CAN'T WAIT!!! Excision aint nothing to fuck with! I'll be posting some of his mixes and tunes up so you all can get a taste soon!

Positive Vibr8ions will be supporting bass slinger RUMBLE JUNKIE at Cafe Lura also this month. If you are in Chicago this shouldn't be missed, a HUGE sound system and Massacre host AMS will be on the Mic to get things rolling!

Mertz just got booked to open for freaking BASSNECTAR..... and if thats not enough, DJ Vadim is also on the bill!!!! Thats coming up in April be on the look out for fliers and tickets for that. Its going down in Urbana @ the Canopy Club!

217Mafia is holding it down accros the state, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK you to everyone who has shown such imense support for us over the past year or so, we wouldn't be doing any of this without you!!

Friday, January 22, 2010

So the gents at Red Bull decided to throw a friendly little DJ competition between the two leading dj crews in C-U. The resident DJs at Rave to the Grave, (formally Physical Challenge) are set to throw down against the 217mafias finest. Breakdown will look like this: 4 DJs per team, 15 minute sets back to back. Crowd pics who will be the winner of the throw down. Expect some HUGE tunes from both sides and a night where some of the best in CU go head to head in a duel for musical supremacy!